Rikers Island Detainees Register To Vote With City's Help

RIKERS ISLAND, NY — Men detained on Rikers Island registered to vote Friday as part of an effort to boost civic engagement in New York City's jails, officials said.

The Department of Correction hosted a voter registration drive at the George R. Vierno Center, one of the men's jails at the notorious complex, ahead of next week's deadline to register for the Nov. 5 general election.

The event was part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's DemocracyNYC initiative to increase participation in the democratic process both inside and outside the city's lockups. A similar drive was held last week at the Rose M. Singer Center, the women's jail on Rikers, the DOC said.

"This is a powerful way of reminding those in our custody that their vote matters, and that they still have a stake and a say in their communities," Correction Commissioner Cynthia Brann said in a statement.

Staffers from DemocracyNYC, the Mayor's Public Engagement Unit and the Legal Aid Society helped detainees register and educated them about the importance of voting, according to the Department of Correction. The Public Engagement Unit was also stationed in the visitor center during the event, the agency said.

The detainees' paperwork will be delivered to the city's Board of Elections by this year's Oct. 11 registration deadline, DOC spokesperson Shayla Mulzac said. Detainees can also request absentee ballots through jail law libraries, Mulzac said.

The DOC could not immediately provide a number of detainees who registered during Friday's drive. But the agency says it collected 624 voter registration forms and delivered 547 absentee ballots for incarcerated people last year.

"Voting is power," Rini Fonseca-Sabune, the city's chief democracy officer, said in a statement. "DemocracyNYC is proud to work with the Department of Correction and the Public Engagement Unit to ensure that people in custody and their family members can get registered, vote and be involved in the issues they care about most."

This story has been updated to clarify where detainees can obtain absentee ballots.